


live a long life

by blackkat



Series: Mace Windu prompts [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Friendship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: There’s a child hiding behind his robes.Mace looks down, brow rising like a warning flare, but doesn’t move. Leia looks back, all big, innocent brown eyes and perfect guilelessness, and pulls a fold of brown cloth over her head as she practically stuffs herself under his chair.
Relationships: Mace Windu & Leia Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Mace Windu
Series: Mace Windu prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941517
Comments: 102
Kudos: 2248
Collections: Fun/Humour/Crack in a Galaxy Far Far Away, Jedi Journals, Jedi-Friendly, Mace Windu Rare Pairs, Star Wars Alternate Universes





	live a long life

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: I’m very fond of Mace/Obi or even just Mace/Happiness and maybe a quiet day after the war (in a no-66 au)?

There’s a child hiding behind his robes.

Mace looks down, brow rising like a warning flare, but doesn’t move. Leia looks back, all big, innocent brown eyes and perfect guilelessness, and pulls a fold of brown cloth over her head as she practically stuffs herself under his chair.

“Hiding from lessons again?” Mace enquires dryly, even as he surreptitiously shifts a boot out of the way so she’ll have more space. “Or hiding from your brother?”

“Neither,” Leia says primly, like she isn't flat on her stomach under a Jedi councilor’s chair. “My _father_ is an _idiot_.”

Well, Mace certainly isn't about to argue with that. He hums in sympathy, lifting his datapad again, and says, “If you make Captain Rex come looking for you, I'm giving you up.”

“Sergeant Razor,” Leia bargains. She knows his weakness for his old Lightning Squad, the wretch.

“Why couldn’t you have been more like your mother,” Mace says, personally aggrieved.

A head pokes out from under the hem of his robe, and Leia looks up at him in silent, narrow-eyed judgement. “Dad says I'm more like Mom,” she informs him.

“Your father is a fool,” Mace says. “I thought we agreed on that. Luke takes after your mother more. Just because your father can't see past the fact that you have hair doesn’t mean anything.”

“This,” Leia tells him with a holonet-worthy smile, “is why you're my favorite Jedi Master.”

Mace refuses to be swayed. “What did your father do now?” he asks.

Leia wrinkles her nose. “He won't let me fly his speeder,” she complains. “But _Luke_ got to.”

“Hmm.” Mace studies her gravely, then raises a brow. “You retaliated, I assume?”

“I painted it pink,” Leia says. “He should appreciate the effort, I _hate_ pink.”

Somehow, mace gets the feeling that Anakin will fail to see it that way. Still, it takes effort to hide his smirk, so he goes back to his reports and waves an imperious hand. “As you were, Skywalker.”

“Thank you,” Leia says, perfectly cordial, and disappears back under his robes. Companionably, Mace shifts the edge of one over his knee, giving her more cover, and doesn’t lift his head as quick steps sound outside the council room. A moment later, the door hisses open, and a harried-looking Anakin pushes in.

Mace surveys him, brows rising. Apparently the speeder isn't the only thing Leia painted pink.

“I don’t know if I have to remind you of this, Skywalker,” he says pointedly, “but you're not on this council anymore. Is there a reason you're in my temple?”

Anakin peers into the corners, but he pretends he isn't. It’s a rather poor showing. “Sorry, Master Windu,” he says, and Mace can _feel_ the threads of frustration rising from him. “Have you seen my daughter? One of the padawans said she came this way.”

Mace makes a mental note to have a word with the padawans about not giving allies up to their opponents. He still has high hopes of Leia becoming a Jedi when she’s older, and he’s willing to provide incentive. It’s only partly for the look that will doubtless be on Anakin's face when Mace takes her as his own padawan. He’s looking forward to it.

“Do I look like a babysitter to you, Skywalker?” he demands, sidestepping the question.

“Of course not,” Anakin says, and rolls his eyes, which Mace doesn’t appreciate. “You could have just said _no_.”

He turns on his heel, stalking out, and passes Obi-Wan on his way in. Obi-Wan takes one look at his face and hides a smile behind one hand.

“Lost something, Anakin?” he asks merrily, and then, “I like the new wardrobe, that’s a good color on you.”

“I’m going to hang her from the _tower_ ,” Anakin says, and storms out.

“As overdramatic as ever,” Mace says, though he doesn’t put nearly the disapproval in it that he might once have. Anakin does far better as Padmé’s bodyguard than as a Jedi, _and_ it means that Mace doesn’t have to deal with him nearly as often.

“Some things are simply in his nature, I fear,” Obi-Wan agrees, somber, as if Mace can't see the humor he’s hiding. Hiding _badly_. “Good morning, Leia. That’s a beautiful job you did on the speeder. Highly, ah, _visible_.”

“Thank you,” Leia says, still tucked under Mace's robes. “I want the whole world to know my dad is a gigantic _mir'osik_.”

Obi-Wan raises a brow at Mace, who refuses to meet his eyes. It’s potentially possible that some of Lightning Squad have been teaching Leia Mando’a, but _he_ doesn’t know anything about that.

“Well,” Obi-Wan says, and he thinks the beard hides the way he’s smirking, but he’s wrong. “Everyone will know _something_ , undoubtedly. You're aware that’s your father’s least favorite color?”

“Why do you think I picked it?” Leia says, outraged at the thought that she might not have calculated her revenge to the last detail.

“When she enters the temple, she’s mine,” Mace tells Obi-Wan, just to make things clear. “Keep your greedy padawan-stealing hands off of her.”

Leia pokes her head out again. “Does that mean I get a purple lightsaber?” she demands. “Because I want a purple lightsaber.”

“I think we can work something out,” Mace allows, because if anyone else can win a Hurrikaine crystal, it’s probably Leia.

Obi-Wan snorts, leaning over, and Mace accepts the whiskery kiss with a resigned sigh. Clearly Obi-Wan hasn’t taken the time to trim his beard yet, and Mace knows he’s been off his mission at least half the day already. It’s probably just because he knows Mace gets annoyed when he looks like he has a particularly virulent species of fungus clinging to his face, and Obi-Wan _exists_ to annoy him.

“That’s all right,” Obi-Wan says. “I already called Luke.”

“Ha,” Leia says, and retreats under Mace's robes again. “I won _that_ contest, then.”

Obi-Wan narrows his eyes at Mace. “That smirk is unbecoming on you,” he warns.

Mace is unmoved. “It’s beneath the dignity of a Jedi Master to lie,” he tells him, and glances down. “Skywalker, are you going to stay there all day?”

“No,” Leia says, muffled. “I'm going to slice the security feeds and wait until I'm sure Dad has left, and then I'm going to find Ahsoka.”

Mace raises his eyes skyward. Ahsoka and Leia together is a terrible combination for the well-being of any sentients in the vicinity. “If you agree to direct _all_ of your retribution at your father alone, I’ll show you the back route out of the Archives that he doesn’t know about,” he says, because Leia is a creature of cutthroat diplomacy even at the age of seven.

Leia peers out to study him with narrowed eyes. “Dad and whoever comes after us,” she counters.

“Only if clones aren’t involved,” Mace retorts, because the clone troopers who decided to call the Coruscant temple home don’t deserve to be shoved right back into a war zone.

“I would never,” Leia says primly, and steals Mace's datapad right out of his hands before vanishing under the chair again.

“Don’t,” Mace warns, not even bothering to look up at Obi-Wan.

Undeterred, Obi-Wan just chuckles, hiding it behind one hand as he strokes his overgrown beard. “I hope you're prepared for how she’s going to age you before your time,” he says.

Mace gives him a cool look. “This coming from the man who volunteered to teach _Luke Skywalker_?”

“Point,” Obi-Wan concedes. “But I survived Anakin.”

“Dad always says he survived you,” Leia butts in.

“Slander,” Obi-Wan says without missing a beat.

“You both survived each other,” Mace says dryly. “Congratulations. Go take care of your face.”

“Other people appreciate my face,” Obi-Wan says, all wounded virtue, but he gives Mace another kiss and pulls back.

“That’s gross,” Leia says pointedly.

“Someday you’ll understand the sheer aggravation that makes you want to shut someone up with your mouth,” Mace tells her, and she makes an angry, supremely doubtful noise. Mace lets it go, mostly so he can rub it in her face when she’s older.

“Dinner?” Obi-Wan asks, eyes bright with humor. “At—”

“Dex’s,” Mace finishes for him, because he’s getting predictable in his old age. “ _If_ your face looks normal by then.”

“The things I do for love,” Obi-Wan laments, but he sweeps out of the room like the dramatic bastard he is.

“I don’t suppose I can have my pad back yet?” Mace asks into the silence.

“They updated the firewalls,” Leia says, miffed. “Five more minutes.”

She is so very much her father’s daughter, Mace thinks, but he’s smiling just a little as he leans back in his chair.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[PODFIC] Live A Long Life](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24811741) by [Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/Primarybufferpanel)




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